Jharal Yow Yeh is a bit fan of how the AFL handles negotiations with players. Picture: Darren England Source: The Courier-Mail

ONE of rugby league's best and brightest young talents takes a brief slurp from his milkshake before delivering a sobering message: the AFL do it better.

Jharal Yow Yeh may only be 22 but he is no dummy.

The Broncos winger, who proudly wore the Queensland and Kangaroos jersey last year, has had plenty of time for thought since being sidelined with a shocking ankle injury in March.

League has reached a landmark time in its long history, with negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement and a salary cap dispute causing plenty of headaches between the players and the ARL Commission.

Before knowing the result of the negotiations, Yow Yeh spoke out about how he believed the voices of league players had largely been drowned out for too long.

Yow Yeh says league's voices simply haven't been loud enough, adding that it only takes a glimpse at the rival AFL to reveal a blueprint for an uprising of player power to give players a much stronger voice.

During fraught negotiations in the lead-up to the AFL's new bargaining agreement in 2011, hundreds of players gathered at regular meetings organised by the AFL Players' Association to include them in the decision-making process.

In search of a better deal, more than 400 players attended an AFLPA event at Melbourne's Crown Casino last June. They were joined by a further 300 players from non-Victorian clubs via video link, with Gold Coast Suns and Brisbane

Lions squads watching the event at their club house as a show of support.

Such a display of player unity is unheard of in rugby league, a game where a grudge is rarely forgotten.

Leading AFL players launched their own social media campaign on Twitter to make sure they had a strong and united voice when things came to the crunch.

Sitting in the cafe of the Broncos' Leagues club, Yow Yeh could not hide his admiration for the AFL players and insisted league players must become more united and organised in the future.

"The way the AFL does things is amazing," Yow Yeh told The Courier-Mail.

"They include everybody in decisions. All the (AFL) clubs get together and any time they want to change something, all the players go there.

"That is what we need to do.

"We only have a selected amount of players that do that for us.

"I don't know how many (league) players are in the Players' Association but I don't think it is many.

"We need to have a bigger voice in the future.

"Half the stuff we ask for, we never get.

"When (the AFL players) want something, they generally get it.

"In league, you don't see anyone coming to our (Broncos) club asking us what's wrong and what we need to change. There is never anything like that."

Yow Yeh wants to make it clear his plea is not about money or wages.

He believes that as key stakeholders in the game, the players must have a bigger say in the decisions made in the future. He says the ARLC's controversial move to ban shoulder charges was an example of a ludicrous decision which should have been blocked by player power.

"This shoulder charge business is simply out of this world ... that is rugby league," Yow Yeh says.

"A lot of the hits last year were the biggest hits that have ever been put on in rugby league and that's just because everyone is getting faster, stronger and bigger.

"It's not the way that people are tackling. That is nonsense."

AFL superstar Gary Ablett said Yow Yeh's assessment of the AFLPA was on the money.

The elite Gold Coast Suns midfielder said players throughout his code understood the power of unity when their CBA was up for negotiation last year.

Ablett said teammates and rivals quickly realised how important public displays of "togetherness" were in ensuring they had a cut of a competition that reaped enormous broadcast rights money through their on-field exploits.

The AFLPA also threatened strike action when negotiations stalled in the middle of last year.

Players eventually received a hefty increase in player benefits, rookie wages and retirement funds.

The AFL is now Australia's leading code for player payments. The minimum wage is $80,000 a season. League players start at $55,000 a year and efforts to deliver a $25,000 a season increase have been one of the sticking points in negotiations with the ARL Commission.

While not disrespecting the efforts of the NRL players, Ablett insisted his code's players were motivated and united.

"We have a great players' association and it gets stronger every year," Ablett said.

"We come together as a group. We are strong as a playing group.

"If we think there's an issue in the game or we are not being treated right then we come together as a group and make sure we make a point about whatever that is.

"There were a couple of issues last year we were concerned about. "It got to the point where we talked about the players striking.

"Thankfully, we reached an agreement with the AFL and it never came to that.

"They (NRL players) obviously have their disagreements there. I just hope they work things out."

Rugby league is game built on intense collision. It was never designed to foster a collective spirit.

However, the NRL is becoming a closer world thanks to events like the All Stars game and the rise of social media.

Now is the time for its players to finally learn what their AFL counterparts discovered years ago.

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